Phantasmagoria of Love
by The Loneliest of All
Summary: A ghastly and ghoulish collection of stories about beating hearts and monster girls. Well, the hearts will be beating at least half of the time. Maybe. Will include many different ships. Character tags are the newest chapter's ship.
1. Chapter 1

You go to bed with a toothache,  
You wake up in the morgue,  
You gotta roll  
All over the floor!  
That's what I said!

I got Dracula Blood!  
On my face  
I got Dracula Blood!  
On my face  
Dracula Blood!  
On my face  
I'm gonna sweat it all over the place!

_Dracula Blood, by Zombina and the Skeletones_

* * *

The world held no color, everything in shades of grey; or at least that was what it seemed. On such a drab and dreary day, locked to the confines of a shaded room of rotted wood and creaking floorboards, Ruby let out a sigh.

Her sun had forever departed, and yet it seemed as if, to her, that that wasn't necessarily the main problem. She paid no mind to simple matters such as blood no longer pumping through her veins. Her current issue was much more… vain.

With her eyes shut tightly, she turned to the nearest mirror and opened them only to find nothing of consequence. "Ugh… can't even look at them, stupid jerkface mirror…" She jumped back onto her bed, swiping at her now elongated canines with her tongue.

It had been like this for days, ever since she had woken up like this. It was like she had a sore tooth and she couldn't stop poking at it, probably making her own situation worse. She stuck her fingers in her mouth just to feel them. Whining as the residual ache sounded through her head like a pulse.

She jumped as she heard her bedroom door opening, accidentally yanking at her tooth that was still firmly clutched between her fingers. She cringed in pain as the fang aches came back full force.

She calmed down a few seconds later as she gave whoever it was that came in the side eye. Oh, was it that time already? She visibly brightened up as she saw his face. "Jaune! I wasn't, uh… expecting you so soon?" She looked over to the clock on her bedside table, blinking when she saw that it was much later than she had thought.

"I always come at the same time," he laughed. "Are you feeling alright? You're messing with them again…" He moved to sit right beside her on her bed, placing his book bag on the floor next to him. "You know not to mess with them, it just makes the process a lot worse. Maybe."

Ruby turned her head sheepishly, drumming her fingers against her mattress. "I know, but… you know. They're new to me and they feel weird. And I'm pretty sure they look weird and stuff." She looked down at the floor, feeling more than just a little bit miffed that she couldn't look in the dumb stupid mirror. She wasn't even sure if she looked cute. And she always wanted to look cute for Jaune.

"Look weird? I can't even see them half of the time, but when I can see them I can assure you they're actually kind of cute." He pushed her slightly as if to insinuate that he was kidding. Slightly. But Ruby went blank.

Like, cute? Did he really think that they were cute? The deadly weapons that were permanently in her mouth for all eternity? Cute?! That was new. How could anyone think those killing machines are cute? They were so awkward and long and sharp and scary and she had no idea how to even use them properly…

Cute… Cute? CUTE. C U T E…

She blinked out of her mini freakout, realizing that he had just been staring at her for a few seconds while she had shut down. If she could have blushed she would have been doing so horribly. She coughed into the back of her hand. "Are you kidding me? No, they totally look weird. They're definitely obviously not normal and I get weird looks from people all the time!"

"Ruby, you can only go out at night, I highly doubt most people are looking at your teeth unless they're right in their face. I mean, so yeah, some people are gonna be afraid of them. You know. When they're at their necks or something. But that's besides the point! They're not weird!" Jaune just chuckled, trying to alleviate the sullen mood in the room. "Look, I don't think they look weird at all. For whatever that's worth."

Ruby turned to look at him with doubt in her eyes. She knew he was trying his hardest to convince her, but she didn't need jokes to lighten things up. She needed to be convinced, and she was sure in the moment that that was impossible.

Jaune scratched the back of his head, his smile dropping as he searched his brain for the right thing to do in the moment. But every conclusion he came to just seemed to die off before he could accept it as the right thing. He needed something direct if he was going to get through to her. He knew she wasn't the type of person that would feel satisfied without proof. So... he would prove it to her.

"Ruby, look at me." She did as he asked, and he kissed her. Her eyes sprung wide open, and then gently fell closed a few moments later. For a few seconds there was only silence as the two of them enjoyed bliss. Jaune reached up to place his palm against her cheek, pushing her down gently onto her bed. Their lips parted for a brief moment before returning to their embrace, enveloping the moment in the sweetest cotton, a moment as red and passionate as blood.

Her tongue darted forward like a hunter, swift and strong, seeking a mate to dance with along to a bolero of pure emotion. She gasped when his answered the call, her chest rising and falling along with a mounting crescendo of drums.

All of her doubts washed away as if caught in a massive tidal wave that pulled her entire being under, a cold and dark place that felt as inviting as a well lit room and as warm as a lover's embrace. It wrapped her in the softest fabrics, ensuring not a single sound was heard except the beating of a single heart.

And just as fast as it all began it had ended. She was thrust back into reality, and her vision returned to the cool blue of her boyfriend's own calming eyes. Her insecurities, too, came back into the limelight. Her eyes darted right, away from his. She gasped out once again as he suddenly grabbed her jaw gently, and used both of his thumbs to open her mouth.

Still panting from their heated exchange her hot breath collided against his face again and again, her breath smelling sweet as candy and as cool as mint.

"Show them," he said firmly. "Show me your teeth." She stopped fighting, giving up with another deep breath. She let him inspect her mouth freely, his thumbs sliding deeper into her mouth. She could feel the effects of the action on her body, but suppressed them as he pressed his thumb against the very edge of her left canine. He winced slightly, but smiled through the sharp pain. A tiny bit of blood dropped down on her tongue and she savored the flavor.

"Hah… I…" He removed his thumbs and she immediately darted in for another kiss, her own hands moving to his hips. "Stop looking at me like that! You make me feel small…"

"You're much stronger than me," he pointed out with a smile and a laugh. He pressed his forehead against hers. "I don't understand how you could ever think you look anything less than adorable. Anything less than beautiful."

"S-shut up…" she whined. "I'm gonna die again if you keep saying things like that." She kept her eyes planted firmly away from him but couldn't hide her beaming smile that was forming underneath her false scowl. He just kept laughing.

It wasn't often that he turned her into putty, but he always savored the moments he had her like this. He snuggled into her neck, shifting down into a much more comfortable position. He smiled into her pale, soft skin. "Just don't say anything else about your wonderful teeth looking weird and we're good."

"...F-fine."

Maybe the world didn't _really_ feel so grey… Because her sun hadn't really gone away after all.

* * *

Author's Notes: TEEFS.


	2. I'll Stitch You Back Together

_Watch the white flesh behind the night  
Slowly stitched together, I'll make it right  
When you're raised up, into the sky  
In our arms tonight we're alive_

_Resurrection, by Calabrese_

* * *

Squinting up at the night sky, a young man felt the electricity coursing through the air. A tingle was sent up his spine, hair raising on his head and arms as he shivered. It was a cold night, a pervasive chill in the air. Something was happening tonight. Something big. Or at least, that's what he felt; and he liked to think that he had a good intuition.

He hurried into shelter, his home underneath a decrepit and abandoned house just on the outskirts of the village. As soon as he had made it inside the rain started…

He kept his composure well, but he still felt in his bones that there was a change coming. A big one. He didn't like it one bit. Change never got him anything good. He scowled to himself and replaced the square wood plank that covered the opening to his makeshift home.

* * *

Thunder cracked and she ran for her life. She ran so fast that her legs threatened to fall off. She felt the shoddy work of her father failing her, electricity coursing through the bolts sticking out of her body. Panting, breathing so hard her lungs were on fire, she slipped in a puddle of mud.

Picking herself up from the spill, she pushed on, dreadfully aware of her pursuers. Angry people, fire, knives and shotguns and a whole assortment of other deadly instruments meant specifically to kill her.

"I didn't… I didn't mean to do it," she mumbled to herself. "I didn't mean to do it!" she repeated in a harsh scream. "Please stop! I didn't… I can't…" She nearly fell again. She wanted to cry, but she didn't have the time.

She managed to break line of sight with the crowd, going off the beaten path and around the village outskirts in an attempt to find someplace safe. She just needed to breath, needed one moment to collect her thoughts. And that's when she saw the bit of light peeking out of a hole leading to the crawlspace under the house closest to her.

She moved for it without a second thought, throwing the board inward.

After a couple of seconds, she took a breath and scrambled to replace the wood. When it was firmly in place she breathed a sigh, shifting until she was sitting in the most flattering way possible in a skirt. Even with all of the mud and grime covering her thighs, arms and face, she was able to relax.

Until she heard movement.

In a split second she turned and pushed herself back up against the wall, ready to kick herself out through the hole at a moment's notice. The only thing that kept her from doing so was the fact that she didn't see much of anyone in the makeshift room with her.

It was actually quite a nice place to be, she thought. There were a few rugs and blankets scattered over the ground, a nice and comfortable place to sleep she figured. There were a couple of cheap looking lanterns scattered around as well, illuminating the space almost entirely. And it was surprisingly clean, not a single spider web or anything. A bit humid, but not above a level that wasn't expected.

She felt water trickle in from behind her. She pressed down into the earth with her fingers, lifting them up for muddy water to drip down onto her thigh.

A bit of a flooding problem. Though it didn't seem to reach further in. She scanned the crawlspace, suddenly realizing just how cramped it was. And further realizing that she had made it to safety somehow. She didn't hear a thing outside in any direction.

She allowed herself to loosen up, her entire body going slack as she was hit by a wave of exhaustion. She yawned, closed her eyes, and slowly but surely passed out. Or at least, she would have, had she not heard the same sound of movement.

Sure that it wasn't just her mind playing tricks on her she immediately moved to leave.

"Wait, don't leave!" she heard a soft, calming voice speak out. It froze her in place. Several moments passed, and when she finally turned around she jumped up and hit her head on the ceiling.

He was much closer than she had anticipated.

"Ouch! Hey, don't scare me like that," she complained, rubbing at the now sore bump on her head. "That really smarts…" She eyed the boy curiously, the fact that he had willingly came closer to her of his own accord amazed her. It was something that no one had done but her father and that sweet… little girl...

Her gaze was instantly cast downward at the thought of her and the incident that had started this whole mess. If she hadn't have left the castle and been a good girl, she wouldn't have been chased. She never would have…

"Are you okay?" the boy asked. "You don't look too good…" And that was true enough. She was covered in mud and probably coming undone all over the place.

"Not really, no. I'm not okay at all," she admitted. "Everything hurts, and I haven't been here too long but I'm fairly sure that's not normal. That's not normal is it?" The boy shook his head, confirming her worst fears. "You're not scared of me? The last person who saw me tried to hurt me. And then a bunch of other meanies tried to too." She shyly began fiddling with her hair, not too familiar with how exactly conversation is held. But the boy's reactions were promising.

"Well, why should I be afraid of you? You're not trying to hurt me." He grabbed a dirty rag and placed a bucket outside of the crawlspace. "Besides, I haven't really talked to someone near my own age in a while. Most people in town just kind of ignore me."

"Oh, I see." She watched as the boy grabbed the bucket from outside and dipped the rag in the collected rainwater. "What's your name?" He dunked his hand completely into the bucket and paused.

"It-it's Lie. Lie Ren." He turned his head away completely as he grabbed her arm gently and began washing away the mud.

"Okay… M-my father called me Nora. So I'm pretty sure that's my name," she laughed out awkwardly. Ren raised an eyebrow.

"You aren't from around here are you? You talk differently. Not that that's a bad thi-..." He looked down at her arm and froze in shock. Washing the mud away, her skin was pale and almost blue, but what got to him the most was that her hand was literally sewn onto her body. Stitched? Whatever. He shook his head, almost unbelieving.

"You could say that… Please don't scream." Something in her voice made him look up at her face. Caked in dirt and almost sickly pale. But her eyes were of the most beautiful color, they were strikingly vibrant. But they were terribly sad. There was grief, heartache there that he couldn't possibly understand. Even with all that he had lived through. And it looked like it had amassed in the matter of a day or two.

"What are you?" he asked. But there was no disgust, no malice. It was just a question. It still made her expression turn somber.

"A human. I'm… like you. Or at least I want to be human. I just wasn't made like you." She gasped out in surprise when he started cleaning her arm off again. "I'm sorry. I'll leave just as soon as I'm able, I promise-"

"No, please. Stay as long as you need to. I wouldn't mind the company. It gets kind of lonely around here for me. No one really likes an orphan, you know." He scrubbed hard enough to get every bit of dirt off of her, but gently enough around her stitching. Even with him being gentle, though, he could still feel how loose it had all become.

"I, oh. You don't want me to leave? I see… What's an orphan? My father taught me a lot of words but I'm still not that smart," she laughed out nervously.

"It means that I don't have any parents. They both died when I was young, and we were so poor that I just had to go to the orphanage. That's where orphans go to live, I guess. But it was horrible, so I left." He switched arms, stopping every so often to wash off the rag or collect more rainwater.

"...I see." She kept silent and let him finish up. When he put the finishing touches on her face he gave her the rag to clean the rest of herself, and despite their best efforts by the end of it all she was still a mess.

"The rain is stopping, I'm sure you'll be wanting to go back to the castle." Ren adjusted the level of light on his lanterns, conserving what little oil he had left. "Your father is probably worried sick." Silence was all that he was met with. His head snapped to her, just to make sure that she was alright. "Nora?"

For a moment all that could be heard was the rain hitting the mud outside, but when she opened her mouth her words came out wobbly and almost too soft. "I don't want to go back, there isn't anything there for me. Not anymore. They… they chased me back there. I heard him screaming, something about me not being a monster. And then there was blood, and fire, and-and-and then it all happened so fast, and the next thing I know I'm being chased through the wood-" She choked up. It surprised her into silence. She had never once found it so hard to speak. "What is this feeling? I don't like it…"

Ren moved close to her, and without saying a word pulled her into a hug. She choked again, and then sobbed. But after that she made not a sound, and there were tears on his shoulder. So many tears that they soaked the fabric. "I understand," he said. And somehow she knew he did.

For nearly an hour they sat in silence, listening to the rain fall softer and softer until it eventually stopped. And when it stopped, so did Nora's tears.

Ren grabbed her hand and lifted up, inspecting the loose stitch work carefully. Her wrist, her shoulder, her neck… even a finger on her left hand. There was some under her right knee, and he was sure both of her ankles were like her wrists.

Nora placed a hand over her wrist, whining softly. "Everything hurts."

"Well, if you're going to go falling apart, you're going to need someone to keep you all patched up. So, why don't we stick together from now on? We'll leave town. Together. Go somewhere else where we won't be bothered. And I'll always keep you together." He placed his free hand on top of hers. Her skin was soft, despite everything.

"But where would we go? I don't really know how things work…" She held her eyes intently on his hand, holding in just how wonderful the simple contact felt.

"I'll teach you," he said, squeezing her hand gently. "Everything I know and everything you want to know. I promise."

She only really had to think about it for a few seconds, but she couldn't quite get the words out. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to say it enthusiastically. But, well… all that would come out was "Boop."

"Boop?" Ren asked, totally confused.

"Boop," Nora replied, placing her finger on his nose.

* * *

Author's Notes: Oh boy, bring on that hurt/comfort. The idea was cute to me... But this is just sad and tragic. Took a day and a half to get out properly and even now it feels a bit off. I apologize for the, er, flood of she's and he's. I kind of couldn't figure out how to get their names in without it feeling unnatural early on.

I love the early Frankenstein movies, Bride of Frankenstein is one of my favorites when it comes time to watch something atmospheric for October.

In entirely unrelated news, I'm playing through all the DmC games and I've noticed a huge jump in difficulty on the third one exactly. Getting through the second game was a slog and a half… I got my eyes set on that glorious fifth.


	3. Oh No She's Hot

_Beware the bumps in the night_

_The shadows on your wall_

_The nightmares of your youth_

_Believe in the bogeyman_

_Hiding beneath your bed_

_Just waiting to break loose_

_The Unearthly Ones, by Creature Feature_

* * *

Blake loved her job. It wasn't that there was anything deep about it, she just liked giving people a good spook. It was fun. Hearing those spine tingling screams. It was… absolutely _intoxicating._

But her favorite part was making children lie awake in their beds, eyes frozen on their closet because they're _certain _they saw something move inside; or maybe their window, certain that some lanky, disproportionate thing with a toothless and disgustingly uneven grin is going to peer in on them while they quietly sleep.

She was a bogeyman, a creep, a ghoul, a monster. She was one of many known by different names all over the globe. Butzemann, La Llorona, Mètminwi… whatever she was called mattered not to her, only that she do her job and she do it good. That being scaring people and reminding them that the world is a scary, scary place.

Blake chuckled to herself as she materialized in the closet, her voice distorted and covered in aetherial muck. Her form this time was ghastly. Entirely black, even in the brightest of lights, and if you stared too deeply into the darkness you would hear it call to you. Her eyes were white in contrast and entirely devoid of life, almost seemingly filled with the static of a dead channel with whispers of some forgotten radio station playing behind it — a voice, perhaps, counting off numbers and letters in code, or something else entirely inhuman.

Her body was elongated gruesomely, her arms much too long even still, stretching far past where they should. Her legs were vaguely digitigrade, and short enough so that her arms were dragging along behind her. Extending from her abnormally large hands were seven clawed fingers with far too many joints.

The air around her was so cold, so deathly cold, it was sure to bring a chill to anyone. Whenever she touched anything, it appeared to decay.

Yes, this form was suitable, she thought. She turned the knob slowly, pushing the door open slightly and wrapping her many fingers around the side of it before peeking her thin head into the room.

Dark, yes, as it should be. And there she was, lying on the bed. The same bed she remembered from so long ago. The girl was just a little one then, but now she was grown. Blake could still remember the first time she had scared her.

Small, golden haired, eyes wide and indignant. She didn't want to admit that she was scared, even though her tiny form was trembling in her bedclothes, even though she was close to weeping and crying out for her father just a room away.

The girl had probably forgotten, or maybe her brain had just explained the encounter away. Regardless, she no longer believed in monsters. The phobia stayed, but the fear did not. She had only gotten one nightmare from the child. Just one. She was a rare case, indeed.

The form she had chosen that cold night had been a riddled spider the size of a child, full of holes in which nested other spiders. A favorite to be sure, but one she didn't use often.

The girl had been deathly afraid of spiders after that night, and yet quickly overcame it. A curious bravery that Blake found fascinating, if not dangerous for those in her particular profession. If everyone in the world were so foolishly resistant to fear she would have nothing to do.

She crept up close to the girl's bed, a curiosity forming within to see how she had grown. That, perhaps, was another reason that she had chosen the job. She could have easily let someone else take this one. But she had to seek redemption, and more than that she had to know: how was Yang Xiao-Long doing after all this time?

Without getting so close as to disturb her rest, Blake involuntarily let out a sound that was a mix between a groan and gasp. The girl had most certainly become a woman.

Her hair, once shoulder length, had become long and flowing, and even with it as messy as it was in her sleep, it still seemed soft and entrancing. And her face, so much more mature it was crazy. She hadn't expected to be taken aback.

Where once was baby fat and a sense of cute roughness was now only beauty, features as neatly defined as the cleanest of an artist's brushstrokes. That was to say nothing of the rest of her.

Her chest, gently rising and falling with each new breath she took. Her toned stomach, revealed in all its glory. Her legs, muscular and, if Blake were being completely honest, perfect.

Blake had to hold in every sound her form was trying to make. Her job was to scare her, instead she found that she was the one who was having her (metaphorical) breath taken away.

Moments passed before she realized that she had just been staring at the sleeping girl. Even longer before she realized she had lost her form. She was now human, or at the very least as human as she could be.

She stared down at her hands, slightly transparent, and then back to Yang, shaking slightly. She had never anticipated this, she didn't know what to do. She didn't, for once in her long and storied career, want to wake her victim up. She looked so peaceful. It would just… be such a shame. To have to scare this woman.

She was also about ninety percent sure that she would end up being punched away. Which, though highly ineffective considering she could selectively pass through any physical matter, is just not something she wanted to experience. Mostly due to the fact that, if Yang were to see her in her current form, she would never be _happy_ to see her. There would be no possibility for that ever happening.

But why did she even care? What was seizing her up so bad? She had made children cry every night for untold years, and she had never once felt bad about it. Why now of all times? What possible reason could she have for being unable to go through with what, at this point, was an act she had essentially perfected?

Blake sighed, shaking her head as she floated in place, deathly still. She took a calming breath, although she could not breathe, and tried her hardest to come to a logical conclusion.

Ah.

She was hot.

So hot in fact that it had completely ruined Blake's night. A blush came to her slightly visible cheeks, a visage playing merely off of her own perception of reality. How was she to deal with this? If she couldn't scare Yang, than she only had one option. To leave back through the closet and tell her boss that the job was a failure. But that wasn't so simple was it? Her pride forbade it. She had never once failed a job she was given. She was supposed to be the best, damn it!

But… sometimes the best made a slip up. An error. Yes. Sometimes. If she just never let this happen again her reputation would be fine. One small flub wouldn't even make a mark on all she has accomplished in her un-life.

With a huff, she crossed her arms and moved away from the bed, back towards the closet. She turned her head to get one last view of the spellbinding beauty that still lay asleep.

"I'm gonna be thinking about her all night aren't I? That this would happen to me now…" she moaned quietly. She pushed herself back into the closet, and without even going for another look vanished into thin air.

Inside the room, Yang stirred on the bed, pushing herself up into a sitting position. She stared incredulously toward the closet, and without even thinking ran to yank it open only to find nothing at all, just an ordinary closet. Yet, she knew what she had seen.

"I knew I wasn't crazy," she whispered to herself. She _had_ seen that spider turn into a beautiful girl when she was little.

* * *

Author's Notes: I tried to justify making the ship an already established thing but thought this was a bit funnier and a lil bit cuter. Also went a lil horror heavy in this chapter. Not that anything was particularly horrifying but hey.


End file.
